


The Glossophobe

by abnormalphangirl



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Anorexia, Blind Phil Lester, Depression, M/M, Selectively Mute Dan Howell
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-21 10:23:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11942121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abnormalphangirl/pseuds/abnormalphangirl
Summary: Glossiphobiaglos•si•pho•bi•anoun1) the fear of public speaking, or speaking in general_________________Phil is nervous about finally switching to a public school for his senior year of class with his new seeing-eye dog, Goldeen until he meets an equally shy boy who refuses to speak. The two quickly become friends and become each other's eyes and voice.





	1. Prologue

Sobs wreaked through Phil's small frame, his entire body shaking as his hand raked through his hair, the other twitching in front of his face. His eyes squeezed tightly closed, his stomach heaving as he crawled towards the entrance to his bathroom, throwing his head over into the toilet bowl. Quickly, his stomach was empty as he continued to throw up everything he had eaten the day before and was left dry heaving, his body shivering from the loss of nutrients. 

Footsteps slammed up the stairs, the door to his bedroom opening slowly as Phil heard his mother's voice softly call out for him.

"Philip? Is everything okay?" she asked, stepping into the room, glancing around the corner of the bathroom before rushing to his side, rubbing his back. "Oh, what happened to you sweetheart." 

Phil's leaned back against his mom, his eyes squeezed closed as he sobbed against her chest, her hand rubbing his back again. 

"Just talk to me, baby boy." 

He stopped, whimpering softly. "I-I can't see mum..." 


	2. Dull eyes and Gray skies

_"It's going to storm,"_ Dan whispered, his back pressed up against the rough bark of his walnut tree, watching the small brown leaves begin to fall down. His best friend, Chris glanced over with a look of confusion before looking back up at the sky.

 _"How can you tell?"_ he asked, staring at the perfectly blue sky. Not a cloud to be seen. 

 _"The leaves on the tree. They're flipped upside down. It's to prepare for a storm. Or at least rain."_  Dan explain, picking at the bandage on his wrist. Chris laughed softly and nudged him with his arm. 

 _"You're a dork."_ he giggled, leaning over and leaving a soft kiss on Dan's cheek, standing up and helping him to his feet. Dan stumbled up and hugged Chris tightly. 

_"I've got to go. Class is starting in like ten minutes and it takes almost that to get across town."_

  _"See you after school?"_

_"See you after school."_

* * *

Dan looked up at the sky as he continued his walk to school, his headphones were pushed in his ears at the start of journey only to be shoved back in his pockets when the rain began. A small smile glazed over his lips as he got soaked, everything in his possession now ruined from the water. But it was soothing. Listening to the monotonous tapping of droplets dancing on the pavement. He hummed along happily to the song stuck in his head, holding the straps of his bag on his shoulders to his chest, nearly skipping to the entrance of his school. 

Normally, Dan was never this happy to start school in the morning. But since he had spent his morning with Chris and it was raining, it filled him with joy. It seemed that Chris was the only one who understood him and his reluctances to speak when around people he could not trust. That's why Dan decided years ago that he was selectively mute. 

Not around his family or Chris but to everyone else, he was mute. And they didn't know otherwise. The teachers all understood and instead of making it seem like such an unnatural thing, they all decided to place him in classes where he could retrieve his work and rush off to the library to work individually. As much as Dan appreciated all his school had done for him, he was constantly alone. No one wanted to talk to someone who wouldn't talk back. 

His behavior always seemed to come with backlash. People talking about him blatantly in the hallway as if he was deaf and not mute, people shoving him around and using him, or teasing him behind his back about him or his muteness. Dan always managed to not let it affect him, he powered through with Chris' help and his parents. He acted like he never heard anything, ducking his head down through the halls to avoid seeing anyone or having anyone see him. Filtering through the different voices in his head, he picked apart the different conversations, most of them about himself but all the others were just not interesting to him. Dan did have dirt on almost everyone in the school, whether it was things he heard directly or from others who were passing around the news, that was probably the best part of being nearly ignored by everybody. One conversation happened to peak his interest. Two girls at their lockers were mumbling something about a new kid, how he wasn't going to last long here and how no one would ever hang out with him. Dan's stomach dropped as he heard that, chewing on his lip as he looked up a bit, just glancing around to spot the new kid. He sighed quietly as he shook his head and failed to sight the new kid. When he arrived at his locker he quickly inputted his combination and pulled on the handle to open the door, but it stayed closed. Dan huffed, and tugged on it again, yelping as he fell backward to the ground as the door quickly swung open. The kids around him began to laugh and chuckle as he closed his eyes and sighed, pausing as he listened to the laughter pelt him like daggers in his chest until he felt something wet rub against his forehead and everyone quiet down. Dan opened his eyes to see a dog's face pressed against his, sniffing at his forehead and hair. He jolted up and looked at the dog, a large golden retriever with a harness around her chest. _Service Pet,_ Dan read as he reached his hand out to pet the dog's head, glancing up at the person holding the leash. He seemed to tower over Dan, mostly because he was on the ground, his eyes were rather dull and gray and his hair a shiny jet black. 

" _What did you find,_ Goldeen _?_ " The boy asked the dog as he knelt down to feel at the ground to find what she had stopped him for. His hand brushed against Dan's leg before he jolted back, muttering a quick apology. Dan chewed on his lip and shook his head slightly, standing up to walk against his locker. 

" _Hello?_ " The boy said, " _I said that I was sorry, please don't think I'm like weird or anything. I would never like purpose grab someone's leg unless they like gave me permission but other than that I wouldn't touch anyone at all._ " Dan smiled slightly, stepping back over to bend down and pet the dog slightly before standing up to look up at the boy again, he rested his hand on his arm lightly to let him know he was there. He jumped for a second before relaxing. " _Do you not talk?_ " he whispered, feeling as Dan traced the word 'no' on his wrist. The bell rang and the students around them dispersed through the halls to their classes, leaving just Dan and this boy with his dog. 

" _I'm Phil,_ " he said. " _Just started here. Blind._ " Dan nodded slightly as he continued to trace words onto Phil's arm. 

' _Dan. Been here for my whole life. Mute._ '

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case that was confusing a bit, when Phil or someone is actually speaking I'm going to use double quotation marks ( " ) and when Dan is tracing words or something, it's going to be single quotation marks ( ' )
> 
> Sorry if that was a bit confusing to you. >_<


	3. Library

" _So, how do classes work here for people like us?_ " Phil asked, following Dan through the corridor with Goldeen trotting along beside him. Dan stopped and grabbed his arm again, pausing for a second before tracing ' _library_ ' in his pale skin. Phil nodded and sighed, following along behind.

" _So we just don't get to have friends?"_ he mumbled, dragging his feet on the tile. Dan stayed silent as he continued his way to the library, pushing open the door to let Phil and Goldeen enter first.

" _There you are!"_ The headmaster spoke, walking towards Dan. " _I was going to have you show around Philip because I thought..._   _You guys have a lot in common so..._ " he stumbled over his words before clearing his throat.

 Dan nodded slightly and stepped past the headmaster, walking over to Phil to take his arm, leading him to the back room which had been set aside for Dan when he began taking his independent classes. Dan sat down on the floor against the wall, grabbing his phone from his pocket to open up his text to speech app he has downloaded so that it's easier to communicate without people hearing his voice. Quickly he began typing, glancing up at Phil as he sat down at the only table in the room.

' _Hey, this is my speech app so I don't have to keep touching your arm all the time. It's just easier to use than sign sometimes and well, you can't see sign anyway. I wasn't really going to do any work today anyway. Got my weekly work done months ago. So, if you don't mind, today we could just chill in here and get to know each other._ ' Phil jolted for a second before giggling at his own reaction. 

" _I'd be fine with that. You're not going to have to fight me too hard on this,"_  he laughed, making Dan's stomach flip and a smile run across his cheeks. 

' _So, why'd you decide to come here?_ ' Dan typed, putting his phone down to listen to Phil's answer, running his hand through his hair. 

" _I wanted to go to public school again. I got pulled out when my illness started and I've been out ever since. I wanted to graduate like a normal kid._ " Phil said with a sigh, " _I want to be normal,_ " he whispered, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand to keep back the tears. Dan frowned and chewed on his lip, grabbing his phone quickly. 

' _When did you get sick?_ ' 

" _About four years ago. Basically all of high school. I had a benign tumor in my brain, it wasn't supposed to even hurt me, but for some reason, it got out of control and grew like overnight. All of a sudden I was really sick. Fevers like crazy and vomiting a lot, always tired. And the doctor's just never thought to look there. I just woke up really late one day while my parents were out and it had grown so big it had severed my optic nerve and I just couldn't see._ " Phil explained quietly, reaching his hand down to lightly pet Goldeen's head. " _That was the scariest day of my life. Just waking up to nothingness. Everything just continued around me but it was like I couldn't wake up from the dark._ "

Dan paused and chewed on his lip, looking away as he nervously tapped his fingers on his knee. ' _I can't even imagine, Phil. You're really strong, you know._ ' Phil laughed quietly before shaking his head, brushing his hair out of his face.

" _Everyone says that. I'm not really,"_

_'_ _You are. You deal with this every day and I can't even deal with my own shit at all.'_

_"What does that mean?"_ Phil asked, " _I'm sure that you are plenty strong. Everyone deals with everything differently._ " 

' _I hide behind my phone, Phil. You are so bubbly and happy even though the cards are stacked against you and I have nothing to complain about in my life and I still can't even find the courage to speak to people._ ' 

" _I'm sure that there is a reason to it. I can tell that you are a good person. Would a bad person lead around the blind kid and their dog._ "

' _Mostly just for the dog_.' Dan joked with a smile, reaching over to pat Goldeen on the head. Phil laughed and smiled, leaning down to rest his hand on Goldeen's head, his hand stopping on top of Dan's before clearing his throat as he pulled his hand away. 

"S-sorry," he muttered. 

' _No, it's okay. It's okay._ ' Dan blushed and looked down, pulling his hand away to rest back in his lap. ' _Listen, I'm going to be honest with you because I think that you're a good person and that you deserve to know something basic about me,_ '

" _What is it?_ " 

' _I can talk,_ ' Dan typed out slowly, glancing down. ' _I'm not actually mute._ '


End file.
